notes page

We origionally called this the notes page, just a place for random stuff that doesn't fit well in other catagories. Sometimes it's a little bit of a rant page, because that's what blogs are about, just a place to say what you think, without the need to listen to the other side, like in those lame two sided magazine articles.

Archive notes: 2006 Current Year
12/30/07
11/28 Apparently the virus season is upon us, we have been hiding out from the "stomach flu" that is going around. As for the Airborne experiment I mentioned in January, it was a sucess. No, it didn't stop me from getting all colds, but it was a useful experiment. As I live with a toddler who goes to day care I come in close proximity to 5 times as many colds as a non childed adult so I had plenty of chances to use it. Sometimes I did notice a big reduction in symptoms that I usually get, but at least for me it wasn't the magical cure.
9/28 So we picked up a Honda Fit to replace our Civic. There are no great deals to be had as there are none on any dealer lots that are not spoken for, at least around here. Anyway, its good to have a four door car now with Levi and all. As the reviews suggest it really wasn't a big change to go from the SI to the Fit as it's a fun to drive car, but its cheaper and we should be able to get close to 40mpg which is all the rage these days. In reality though, even at $3 a gallon, gas isn't nearly expensive enough to make most people change their driving habits. As Calvin's dad said; "Cyclists have a right to the road too, you noisy, polluting, inconsiderate maniacs! I hope gas goes up to 8 bucks a gallon!"
8/28 I guess I wouldn't make a good industry blogger as I am just now getting to post about the Trek Show 10 days ago. At least I have more insightful commentary. Follow the picture trail for some notes.
7/25/07 So we have reached a new low, there are more articles about doping than actually the riding in the Tour de France on Velonews.com now. (not that I have counted, but I am pretty sure over the last 3 days it has been thus) Folks are up in arms because the current leader Michael Rassmussen missed some of the random drug tests that riders are required to have (this happened well before the Tour). He didn't miss enough to be kicked out, but once he got into the lead this all came to light and some folks say he should leave the Tour despite never having a positive (meaning there was presence of drugs) drug test. What?? Now I have said before that I think they are mostly on drugs anyway, but here in America (yes the race is in France) at least most of the time if you haven't broken the law (which Rassmusen has not yet), or cannot be given a fair trial, or the evidence is not sufficient to prove guilt (which Floyd Landis is claiming), then you are regarded as innocent. The cycling world is desperate to get rid of the stain of drugs, but that is no excuse for a witch hunt.
6/21/07 What else is new about road biking? in this last month lots of ex-pros are admitting that they used various illegal means (epo, blood doping, etc.) to achieve their results. One more for the humans can't be trusted file.
6/3/07 So this is for road cycling enthusiasts, the future is here, and it's not going to be any less expensive. a decade ago the most expensive Trek road bike cost in the $4000 range Ithink, for 2008 they will probably go to $11,000 or more. But that's old news, the new news is that Trek is finally revamping their race bike line for 2008, gone are threaded 68mm BB shells, headset cups, 1 1/8 forks, and seatposts as we know them. Now, none of this is new, Cannondale has been doing their own BB's for years, but the difference is that it is Trek doing it (22% of the speciality market) and they are doing it with 11 models and with more parts compatiblilty than other brands so it will spread quickly. Check it out at http://www2.trekbikes.com/madone/
5/28/07 I just recently discovered Google spreadsheets and Documents. It can be very useful, you just go to Google, use your free gmail account to use their programs (not super powerful but can do the basic work, I've found it is better to download to your regular program for printing) to make a Document, then store it on their servers for free for easy acess wherever you are when you need them. You can set it up so other people can edit certin ones at their lesiure, without getting into your account. The Google calender works the same way and is cool as well.
5/16/07 Here are some pics from the party we went to on Sunday. It's pretty much kid pictures but pretty funny.
4/9/07 I feel like I havn't done this page justice the last several months, and now it's getting harder to get time. I'm now overseeing the whole bike side of Omer and Bobs, not just service and so that means among other things, lots of ordering. The good thing is, in these modern times I can do a lot of that at home but it does make it harder to carve in some blogging time. 4/9/07 here is something that I have been thinking about. Web 2.0: everyone is talking about making money off of it but a huge percentage are supposed to make their money from advertising (the plan is to give away the service for free or almost free to drive traffic). I guess it's easier than making something that people would actually be willing to pay for. The most mind blowing thing for me as an old, out of touch 30 something is that people will pay real money to dress up their virtual avatars and belongings on these social networking or gaming sites to impress people they have never met. Sure it's just paying for entertainment just like everyone else does, but, it feels wierd having grown up back in the days before the matrix.
3/21/07 So it continues to be a great 2nd half of the ski season in the northeast (after a disastrous first half). Northern resorts like jay and stowe have gotten 15 feet of snow (and more imortantly it has all been dry snow up there) since the middle of Feb. If you look at the snow totals those resorts have now passed (in some cases by up to 90in.) most resorts in Colorado and Utah in snowfall this season. Granted it has been a relativly poor season out there but Jay hasn't even hit their average yet. Now I point this out because I hear all the time folks saying that it doesn't snow in the east and we ski on ice and such. You may ski on ice but it is your own fault, because it is simply not true, you are just skiing the wrong resorts at the wrong times. Now, given equal snow, skiing out west is better for sure but not for the reason usually given (more snow). The biggest advantage the west has, is that it just isn't windy out there. That means the lifts are not freezing and the snow stays put and is not always blowing away. The second is related in that there is a lot more cool terrain out there, but it's only second because if we had that terrain here it would be useless because the wind would scour it off those wide open steeps. The third is that it doesn't rain in the winter at the mountains in most of the west. Here at least once a winter we get rain which ruins the snow quality for a while. Anyways I just needed to get that out in the open. If you need a guide to the good stuff just let me know and I'll help you out.
3/6/07 So to follow up on the weather talk from before, what I learned is that weather professionals can predict with good accuracy weather trends several weeks ( more in some cases) into the future, you just need to know where to look as they don't get into that stuff in the regular weather reports. One great place to look is the accuweather blogs. Another cool place is Dr. Weather's site, Who specializes in mountain snow reports. They sells supscriptions to the service but there is still some goods for free.
1/13/07 Two weeks ago there was talk on the Accuweather blogs about a change in the jet stream taking place around the middle of the month sending us some more winter weather. They seem to have nailed it precisely, this storm looks to be bringing some mix along with the snow but there is some cold air coming with so that we may have some winter after all this season.
1/5/07 Sorry it took so long to break into the new year here, yesterday was the first day I was well enough to get out of the house in this new year, which segues into my "Airborne" experiment. So due to all of the rave reviews of the cold be gone product I decided to experiment with it myself starting in Dec 2005. Only one month into it and it's already let me down, though in its defense, I believe this cold was brought on by a stomach ailment that laid me low the night before I got the cold. So the experiment goes on for one year, whenever I feel the threat of a cold draws near, I'll pop one of the effervescing pills into my drink, and see what happens.